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L. Wolfe Gilbert

{{Short description|Musical artist (1886–1970)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = L. Wolfe Gilbert

| image = L. Wolfe Gillbert (1915).jpg

| caption = Gilbert in 1915

| children = Doris Gilbert

| module = {{Infobox musical artist|embed=yes

| background = non_performing_personnel

| genre = Traditional pop

}}

| birth_name = Louis Wolfe Gilbert

| birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=y|1886|8|31}}

| birth_place = Odessa, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=y|1970|7|12|1886|8|31}}

| death_place = Los Angeles, California

| other_names = Wolfie Gilbert

| occupation = Songwriter

| years_active = 1912–1945

}}

Louis Wolfe Gilbert (August 31, 1886 – July 12, 1970) was a Russian-born American songwriter of Tin Pan Alley. He is best remembered as the lyricist for "Ramona" (1928), the first movie theme song ever written.{{cite web|url=http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C11|title=Songwriters Hall of Fame - Member Update Exhibit Home|website=www.songwritershalloffame.org}}{{cite magazine|title=Wolfie Gilbert in Chicago|magazine=Billboard|volume=29|date=June 16, 1917|page=14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaoiAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA10-PA14}}

Biography

File:Ramonas.jpg, was the first theme song ever written for the movies.]]

File:William Grant Still, L. Wolfe Gilbert, W. C. Handy, Frank Drye and Andy Razaf 1954.jpg, Gilbert, W. C. Handy, Frank Drye and Andy Razaf in Los Angeles in 1954]]

File:Abel_Baer_Wolfe_Gilbert_1966.jpg

Born in Odessa, Ukraine, then in the Russian Empire, Gilbert moved to the United States as a young man.{{cite news |title=L. Wolfe Gilbert |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97659775/l-wolfe-gilbert-1886-1970/ |work=Daily News |date=July 13, 1970 |location=New York, NY |page=91 |accessdate=March 15, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

Gilbert began his career touring with John L. Sullivan and singing in a quartet at small Coney Island café called College Inn, where he was discovered by English producer Albert Decourville. Decourville brought him to London as part of The Ragtime Octet.

Gilbert's first songwriting success came in 1912, when F. A. Mills Music Publishers published his song "Waiting For the Robert E. Lee" (melody by composer Lewis F. Muir). Gilbert later wrote both the words and music to "Down Yonder", a sequel to "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee". "Down Yonder" has become something of a standard as an instrumental, though the lyrics are rarely performed.

He joined ASCAP in 1924.{{Citation needed |date=June 2023}}

Gilbert moved to Hollywood in 1929, and began writing for film, television, and radio (including the Eddie Cantor show).

During the 1930s, Gilbert worked on Cuban songs that helped to popularize the rumba in America. Some of these hits for which he wrote English lyrics include "The Peanut Vendor", "Mama Inez", and "Maria My Own".{{cite book|last1=Shaw|first1=Arnold|title=The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920s|date=1987|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0195038916|page=[https://archive.org/details/jazzage00arno/page/114 114]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/jazzage00arno/page/114}}{{cite book|last1=Firmat|first1=Gustavo Pérez|title=The Havana Habit|date=2010|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=9780300168761|page=81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LOme80YwF4UC&pg=PT81}}

Gilbert wrote the theme lyrics for the popular children's Television Western Hopalong Cassidy, which first aired in 1949 on NBC. He was an innovator in his field, having been one of the first songwriters to begin publishing and promoting a catalog of his own works. He served as the director of ASCAP from 1941 to 1944, and again in 1953. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.{{Citation needed |date=June 2023}}

Known as "Wolfie", Gilbert and his wife Rose lived in Beverly Hills and he and his family were members of Temple Israel of Hollywood.

He died in Los Angeles, California on July 12, 1970.{{cite news |quote=L. Wolfe Gilbert, composer of more than 250 songs, including 'Ramona,' the first motion picture theme song, died today of a stroke. He was 83 years old. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/13/archives/l-wolfe-gilbert-composer-dead-wrote-ramona-and-many-other.html |title=L. Wolfe Gilbert, Composer, Dead. Wrote 'Ramona' and Many Other Successful Songs |work=New York Times |date= July 13, 1970|accessdate=2010-07-28 }} His original gravesite was at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City (Mausoleum, Court of Sages, Crypt 223) but he was later reinterred at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs, California.

Songs

Lyrics for Broadway productions

  • 1912 The Girl from Brighton{{cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/l-wolfe-gilbert-95582|title=L. Wolfe Gilbert – Broadway Cast & Staff - IBDB|first=The Broadway|last=League}}
  • 1912–1913 (From) Broadway to Paris
  • 1916–1917 The Century Girl
  • 1917 Doing Our Bit
  • 1919 Oh, What A Girl!
  • 1931 The Singing Rabbi

Gilbert & Friedland

Gilbert & Friedland was a music publishing partnership between composer, performer, and songwriter Anatole Friedland (also sometimes spelled Anatol Friedland and Anato Friedland) and lyricist L. Wolfe Gilbert.

  • "Are You from Heaven?"{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZtQAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Gilbert+and+Friedland%22&pg=RA2-PA150|title=Music Trades|date=December 9, 1918|publisher=Music Trades Corporation|via=Google Books}}
  • "Then You Can Come Back to Me" (1918)
  • "While You're Away" (1918)
  • "That Beloved Cheater of Mine", from film The Beloved Cheater
  • "Singapore (1918), Rector Novelty Orchestra, a ragtime song
  • "Shades of Gray"
  • "Love is a Wonderful Thing"{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaoiAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Gilbert+and+Friedland%22&pg=RA8-PA9|title=Billboard|date=December 9, 1917|publisher=Billboard Publications|via=Google Books}}

References

{{reflist}}

;Bibliography

  • {{cite book|last1=Firmat|first1=Gustavo Pérez|title=The Havana Habit|date=2010|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=9780300168761}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Shaw|first1=Arnold|title=The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920s|date=1987|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0195038916|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/jazzage00arno}}

Further reading

  • Bierley, Paul E.; Rehrig, William H. The heritage encyclopedia of band music. Composers and their music, Integrity Press 1991. {{ISBN|0918048087}}
  • Bloom, Ken. American song. The complete musical theater companion: 1877-1995. Volume 2: T-Z. Second edition. Schirmer Books 1996.
  • Gilbert, L. Wolfe. Without Rhyme or Reason, Vantage Press 1956. {{OCLC|1295930}}
  • Larkin, Colin. The encyclopedia of popular music, third edition. Macmillan 1998. {{ISBN|1561592374}}

External links

  • [https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv936894 L. Wolfe Gilbert papers, 1907–1971], American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
  • {{Find a Grave|8883097|L. Wolfe Gilbert|work=Composer, Lyricist, author, publisher|date=June 6, 2004|accessdate=June 30, 2011}}
  • [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/108737 L. Wolfe Gilbert recordings] at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
  • {{IMDb name|id=0318140|name=L. Wolfe Gilbert}}

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Category:Vaudeville performers

Category:Jewish American songwriters

Category:Odesa Jews

Category:1886 births

Category:1970 deaths

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City)

Category:Broadway composers and lyricists

Category:Musicians from Odesa

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States